Ex-SP MLA, 5 aides held for gunrunning, prohibited arms seized

LUCKNOW: Former Samajwadi Party MLA from

Chharra assembly constituency

in Aligarh, Thakur

Rakesh Singh

(44), was arrested on Tuesday for his alleged links with international arms smuggling nexus. The special task force (STF) of UP police also nabbed his five aides,

Nagendra Singh

, Ishan, Mohammad Anees, Subur Anwar and Wasim Ahmed, who were transporting a haul of banned firearms (all of foreign make) from Mizoram.

The MLA’s five aides were arrested from

Malhaur railway station

in Lucknow while Rakesh was nabbed from his residence in Kwarsi, Aligarh and a Brazilian 9mm pistol Taurus was recovered from the ex-MLA. The STF recovered Czechoslovakian Skorpion VZ61 (sub machinegun), Austrian 9mm Glock (pistol), Czechoslovakian 9mm Luger (pistol) and Italian Tomcat Beretta (pistol), besides multiple magazines and ammunition from Singh’s aides coming

from Aizawl

.

Director general of police OP Singh said that police came to know about movement of international arms dealers about a week ago.

Arms were being ferried to insurgency-hit NE, suspect cops

“The challenging part was to nab Rakesh Singh red-handed. He has been booked three times earlier,” said DGP Singh, who announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 for the team which worked out the case. Rakesh had been earlier booked under Arms Act. In fact, one of his flats in Aligarh was known as ‘Farari House’ (safe house). “The flat was used as a hideout by criminals on the run. Due to the ex-MLAs clout, local policemen hesitated in taking action,” said an officer.

Cops suspect that the seized arms came from Myanmar and were ferried to insurgency-hit parts of Northeast. The responsibility of transporting firearms from Aizawl lied on the shoulders of Ishan Chaudhary alias Ufaq, a resident of Sambhal.

Rakesh stayed put in Aligarh, and sent his close aide Nagendra Singh along with Ishan, Mohammad Anees and Subur Anwar from Sambhal and Wasim Ahmed from Jamia Nagar, Delhi, to Aizawl.

Inspector general STF, Amitabh Yash said, “Sambhal is turning infamous for gunrunning. Many youths have been transporting firearms. We suspect some of them have links with terror outfits and hence have roped in anti-terrorist squad for help.”